Sicarius started with a vengeance in 2017 when the Californian black metal newcomers released their brutally violent debut album, Serenade of Slitting Throats, which won the metallic heart of AMG’s Diabolus in Muzaka, earning the coveted 4.0. Sicarius‘s second album, 2020’s God of Dead Roots, didn’t fare as well; the band, adapting to the departure of founding guitarist Argyris, ultimately delivered a less visceral, more routine product. Then, when original drummer Brandon Zackay left to focus on his career with Whitechapel, and the remaining members departed, some willingly and some not, Sicarius seemingly died, leaving God of Dead Roots as an unexpected swan song.
Fast forward to 2024, when Argyris reunited with original bassist Carnage and joined forces with new vocalist Akéfalos and session drummer Levi Xvl to begin recording a third album, Nex, which, after six whole years, arrived to reintroduce this resurrected version of Sicarius to audiences.
The Sicarius of the resurrection don’t sound very different from the Sicarius that died. Nex follows the same modern black metal template as its predecessors, keeping channels of influence from Dissection, Dark Funeral, Urgehal and, despite Mick Kenney’s departure from the console, Anaal Nathrakh. According to the Latin translation of their name, Sicarius bring a whole quiver of assassin’s weapons into battle. Argyris sounds rejuvenated and deadly, his arsenal full of fiery riffs (“Cold Death”, “No Witnesses”), chaotic tremolodic leads (“Nex”) and clever solos (“Crashing Into the Abyss”) on full display. Newcomer Akéfalos adds a layer of frost to the surgical, cold steel of Nex atop a warm throaty sound, his frozen, high-pitched shrieks a mix of Abbath and Hat from the early Gorgoroth, while his low, guttural growls recall Rotting Christ. Nex has the sound of an angry band, Sicarius trying to bury the remnants of the past for something altogether more destructive.
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There’s no doubt Sicarius are extremely capable at speed, but for my tastes, I connected more with the melodies of Nex and its mixed tempos. Starting with a dark, tremoloed guitar melody, “Opened Obsidian Gateways” uses Sargeist-style repetition layers to establish its earwormy chord sequences, a variation used during the verses and reproduced identically in the bridge before slipping into a nice mid-song chug section and then back again. Simple but effective, the track is a highlight as I caught myself humming the melody at random times during the day. Also noteworthy are the slow-moving melodic strings of “Banshee”, which gave Dissection vibes, and the mid-paced “The Hunger We Cannot Sate”, as it gallops in the true manner of Watain, inducing levels of black-n-roll headbanging across its 5:24 duration. There’s a lot of musical nuance woven into the details of Nex; my many play-throughs confirm it, which makes it all the more frustrating that they’re so hard to hear.
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“With a (t)reble cry he screamed, NO more, more, more.” I’ve taken some small liberties with Mr. Idol’s classic lyric to illustrate Nex‘s most obvious flaw: a thin, unbalanced mix. Nex sounds much louder than its DR score suggests. Serenade of Slitting Throats, for example, with a DR lower than Nex‘s, sounds light years warmer because Kenney managed to give weight to Serenade‘s low end. Nex is almost empty of low end, completely cancelling out anything Carnage does on bass and robbing much of the power from Levi Xvl’s bass drum, making the experience extremely exhausting. In fact, I was forced to interrupt focused listening sessions, because the effort of hearing all of Nex‘s 44:10 left me so aurally exhausted that I was reaching for aspirin. If this was a conscious choice, I don’t know. It certainly gives Sicarius a colder-than-thou edge, as is known for this kind of black metal, but it truly robbed me of much of my enjoyment, which is a shame because, in small doses, Nex is actually quite a good album.
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Sicarius came back with a vengeance and a “we’re-not-joking” attitude, as shown largely by the violently distinctive cover art. Along with other bands like Impious Throne, Unholy Altar and Wuldorgast, Sicarius bring back a sense of threat to the US black metal scene. Nex is an album worth hearing, even though it’s hampered by a production that makes it too tiring to listen to in one sitting, which led me to rate it as follows. Even so, I’ll be keeping my eyes and ears open for the next release.
Rating : 2.5/5.0
DR : 6 | Format reviewed : 320kbps mp3
Label : Adirondack Black Mass | Bandcamp (album)
Websites : Bandcamp | Releases Instagram worldwide : April 10, 2026
